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Real Life Interrupts Texans Game

By

Jeremy Gordon

Nov 4, 2013 10:59 am ET

Every so often, we’ll be reminded that the game we’re watching isn’t The Only Thing That Matters, usually because some off-screen tragedy has put the immediate situation in perspective and forced the acknowledgement that a bunch of adults tossing a ball around is not literally life and death. It’s weirder when it happens in front of us, though, because the gap of unreality between the public and personal downside of playing football is rarely manifested in real time, or in ways we’re not immediately equipped to interpret as a byproduct of the game. A head coach keeling over because of what looks like a heart attack isn’t a football injury, a player getting hit or hurt after the play—it feels more like real life.

At least it did when Houston Texans coach Gary Kubiak collapsed on the field during his team’s game against the Indianapolis Colts, in which they were carrying an unexpected lead at halftime. The incident was replayed over and over on television, and it was scary to see: A grown man with no prior public health problems suddenly unable to walk as his peers swarmed around him, shepherding him to a stretcher for precautionary hospitalization. Kubiak was quickly pronounced as generally alright, but there was a real moment of hesitation with regards to how bad it was, or might’ve been. That’s just for us at home—consider how scary it was for the players who’ve come to know, trust and depend on their head coach. After that, defensive coordinator Wade Phillips was promoted to head playcalling duties but Houston’s lead swiftly evaporated as they eventually missed a field goal to send things to overtime as time ran out. It was hard to carp about the defense’s sudden sogginess or Andrew Luck’s most recent fourth quarter comeback, of course, given the circumstances. Even more so because infallibility has never been something the NFL discusses well in public. But Kubiak’s injury, along with the recently announced surgery that’ll keep Denver Broncos head coach John Fox out for some time, reminds us that working in the NFL is like any other high-pressure job which attracts ceaseless workaholics, to say nothing of the inherent health risks in being an increasingly middle-aged man. “The scale of NFL problems, compared to everyday problems for the rest of us, creates an empathy gap,” Mike Tanier writes for Sports on Earth. “It is hard to relate, and so it is hard to feel. But sometimes, NFL people have problems that any everyday Joe can relate to.”